"Black Hawk! Black Hawk!" cried out Austin Edwards, as he came in
sight of the hunter, who was just returning to his cottage as Austin
and his brothers reached it. "You promised to tell us all about Black
Hawk, and we are come to hear it now."
The hunter told the boys that it had been his intention to talk with
them about the prairies and bluffs, and to have described the wondrous
works of God in the wilderness. It appeared, however, that Austin's
heart was too much set on hearing the history of Black Hawk, to
listen patiently to any thing else; and the hunter, perceiving this,
willingly agreed to gratify him. He told them, that, in reading or
hearing the history of Indian chiefs, they must not be carried away by
false notions of their valour, for that it was always mingled with
much cruelty. The word of God said truly, that "the dark places of the
earth are full of the habitations of cruelty."[2] "With untaught
Indians," continued he, "revenge is virtue; and to tomahawk an enemy,
and tear away his scalp, is the noblest act he can perform in his own
estimation; whereas Christians are taught, as I said before, to
forgive and love their enemies. But I will now begin the history of
Black Hawk."
[Footnote 2: Ps. lxxiv. 20.]
_Austin._ Suppose you tell us his history just as he would tell it
himself. Speak to us as if you were Black Hawk, and we will not say a
single word.
_Hunter._ Very well. Then, for a while, I will be Black Hawk, and what
I tell you will be true, only the words will be my own, instead of
those of the Indian chief. And I will speak as if I spoke to American
white men.
"I am an old man, the changes of many moons and the toils of war have
made me old. I have been a conqueror, and I have been conquered: many
moons longer I cannot hope to live.
"I have hated the whites, but have been treated well by them when a
prisoner. I wish, before I go my long journey, at the command of the
Great Spirit, to the hunting grounds of my fathers in another world,
to tell my history; it will then be seen why I hated the whites. Bold
and proud was I once, in my native forests, but the pale faces
deceived me; it was for this that I hated them.
"Would you know where I was born? I will tell you. It was at the Sac
village on Rock River. This was, according to white man's reckoning,
in the year 1767, so that I am fifty years old, and ten and seven.
"My father's name was Py-e-sa; the father of his father was
Na-na-ma-kee, or Thunder. I was a brave, and afterwards a chief, a
leading war-chief, carrying the medicine bag. I fought against the
Osages. Did I fear them? No. Did I often win the victory? I did.
"The white men of America said to the Sacs and Foxes, to the Sioux,
the Chippewas, and Winnebagoes, 'Go you to the other side of the
Mississippi;' and they said, 'Yes.' But I said, 'No: why should I
leave the place where our wigwams stand, where we have hunted for so
many moons, and where the bones of our fathers have rested?
Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk, will not go.'
"My heart told me that my great white father, the chief of America,
would not do wrong; would not make me go to the other side of the
river. My prophet also told me the same. I felt my arm strong, and I
fought. Never did the hand of Black Hawk kill woman or child. They
were warriors that Black Hawk fought with.
"Though I came down from the chief Na-na-ma-kee, yet my people would
not let me dress like a chief. I did not paint myself; I did not wear
feathers; but I was bold and not afraid to fight, so I became a brave.
"The Osages were our enemies, and I went with my father and many more
to fight. I saw my father kill an enemy, and tear away the scalp from
his head. I felt determined to do the same. I pleased my father; for,
with my tomahawk and spear, I rushed on an enemy. I brought back his
scalp in my hand.
"I next led on seven of our people against a hundred Osages, and
killed one. After that, I led on two hundred, when we killed a
hundred, and took many scalps. In a battle with the Cherokees my
father was killed. I painted my face black, and prayed to the Great
Spirit, and did not fight any more for five years; all that I did was
to hunt and to fish.
"The Osages had done us great wrong, so we were determined to destroy
them. I set off, in the third moon, at the head of five hundred Sacs
and Foxes, and one hundred Ioways. We fell upon forty lodges. I made
two of their squaws prisoners, but all the rest of the people in the
lodges we killed. Black Hawk killed seven men himself. In a battle
with the Cherokees, I killed thirteen of their bravest with my own
hand.
"One of our people killed a pale-face American, and he was put in
prison; so we sent to St. Louis, to pay for the killed man, and to
cover the blood. Did the pale faces do well? No, they did not; they
set our man free, but when he began to run they shot him down; and
they gave strong drink to our four people, and told them to give up
the best part of our hunting ground for a thousand dollars every
twelve moons. What right had they to give our men strong drink, and
then cheat them? None.
"American white faces came, with a great, big gun, to build a fort,
and said it was to trade with us. They treated the Indians ill: we
went against the fort. I dug a hole in the ground with my knife, so
that I could hide myself with some grass. I shot with my rifle and cut
the cord of their flag, so that they could not pull it up to fly in
the air; and we fired the fort, but they put out the fire.
"One of our people killed a white, and was taken. He was to die, but
asked leave to go and see his squaw and children. They let him go, but
he ran back through the prairies next day, in time to be shot down. He
did not say he would come back, and then stay; he was an Indian, and
not a white man. I hunted and fished for his squaw and children when
he was dead.
"Why was it that the Great Spirit did not keep the white men where he
put them? Why did he let them come among my people with their
fire-drink, sickness, and guns? It had been better for red men to be
by themselves.
"We went to a great English brave, Colonel Dixon, at Green Bay: there
were many Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Ottowas, and Winnebagoes there.
The great brave gave us pipes, tobacco, new guns, powder, and clothes.
I held a talk with him in his tent; he took my hand. 'General Black
Hawk,' said he, and he put a medal round my neck, 'you must now hold
us fast by the hand; you will have the command of all the braves to
join our own braves at Detroit.' I was sorry, because I wanted to go
to Mississippi. But he said, 'No; you are too brave to kill women and
children: you must kill braves.'
"We had a feast, and I led away five hundred braves to join the
British. Sometimes we won, and sometimes we lost. The Indians were
killing the prisoners, but Black Hawk stopped them. He is a coward who
kills a brave that has no arms and cannot fight. I did not like so
often to be beaten in battle, and to get no plunder. I left the
British, with twenty of my braves, to go home, and see after my wife
and children.
"I found an old friend of mine sitting on a mat in sorrow: he had come
to be alone, and to make himself little before the Great Spirit: he
had fasted long, he was hardly alive; his son had been taken prisoner,
and shot and stabbed to death. I put my pipe to my friend's mouth; he
smoked a little. I took his hand, and said 'Black Hawk would revenge
his son's death.' A storm came on; I wrapped my old friend in my
blanket. The storm gave over; I made a fire. It was too late; my
friend was dead. I stopped with him the remainder of the night; and
then my people came, and we buried him on the peak of the bluff.
"I explained to my people the way the white men fight. Instead of
stealing on each other, quietly and by surprise, to kill their enemies
and save their own people, they all fight in the sunlight, like
braves; not caring how many of their people fall. They then feast and
drink as if nothing had happened, and write on paper that they have
won, whether they have won or been beaten. And they do not write
truth, for they only put down a part of the people they have lost.
They would do to _paddle_ a canoe, but not to _steer_ it. They fight
like braves, but they are not fit to be chiefs, and to lead war
parties.
"I found my wife well, and my children, and would have been quiet in
my lodge; for, while I was away, Kee-o-kuk had been made a chief: but
I had to revenge the death of the son of my old friend. I told my
friend so when he was dying. Why should Black Hawk speak a lie? I took
with me thirty braves, and went to Fort Madison; but the American pale
faces had gone. I was glad, but still followed them down the
Mississippi. I went on their trail. I shot the chief of the party with
whom we fought. We returned home, bringing two scalps. Black Hawk had
done what he said.
"Many things happened. Old Wash-e-own, one of the Pottawatomies, was
shot dead by a war chief. I gave Wash-e-own's relations two horses and
my rifles to keep the peace. A party of soldiers built a fort at
Prairie du Chien. They were friendly to us, but the British came and
took the fort. We joined them; we followed the boats and shot
fire-arrows, and the sails of one boat were burned, and we took it.
"We found, in the boats we had taken, barrels of whiskey: this was bad
medicine. We knocked in the heads of the barrels, and emptied out the
bad medicine. We found bottles and packages, which we flung into the
river as bad medicine too. We found guns and clothes, which I divided
with my braves. The Americans built a fort; I went towards it with my
braves. I had a dream, in which the Great Spirit told me to go down
the bluff to a creek, and to look in a hollow tree cut down, and there
I should see a snake; close by would be the enemy unarmed. I went to
the creek, peeped into the tree, saw the snake, and found the enemy.
One man of them was killed, after that we returned home: peace was
made between the British and Americans, and we were to bury the
tomahawk too.
"We went to the great American chief at St. Louis, and smoked the pipe
of peace. The chief said our great American father was angry with us,
and accused us of crimes. We said this was a lie; for our great father
had deceived us, and forced us into a war. They were angry at what we
said; but we smoked the pipe of peace again, and I first touched the
goose quill; but I did not know that, in doing so, I gave away my
village. Had I known it, I would never have touched the goose quill.
"The American whites built a fort on Rock Island; this made us sorry,
for it was our garden, like what the white people have near their big
villages. It supplied us with plums, apples and nuts, with
strawberries and blackberries. Many happy days had I spent on Rock
Island. A good spirit had the care of it; he lived under the rock, in
a cave. He was white, and his wings were ten times bigger than swan's
wings: when the white men came there, he went away.
"We had corn and beans and pumpkins and squashes. We were the
possessors of the valley of the Mississippi, full seven hundred miles
from the Ouisconsin to the Portage des Sioux, near the mouth of the
Missouri. If another prophet had come to us in those days, and said,
'The white man will drive you from these hunting grounds, and from
this village, and Rock Island, and not let you visit the graves of
your fathers,' we should have said, 'Why should you tell us a lie?'
"It was good to go to the graves of our fathers. The mother went there
to weep over her child: the brave went there to paint the post where
lay his father. There was no place in sorrow like that where the bones
of our forefathers lay. There the Great Spirit took pity on us. In our
village, we were as happy as a buffalo on the plains; but now we are
more like the hungry and howling wolf in the prairie.
"As the whites came nearer to us, we became more unhappy. They gave
our people strong liquor, and I could not keep them from drinking it.
My eldest son and my youngest daughter died. I gave away all I had;
blackened my face for two years, lived alone with my family, to humble
myself before the Great Spirit. I had only a piece of buffalo robe to
cover me.
"White men came and took part of our lodges; and Kee-o-kuk told me I
had better go West, as he had done. I said I could not forsake my
village; the prophet told me I was right. I thought then that
Kee-o-kuk was no brave, but a coward, to give up what the Great Spirit
had given us.
"The white men grew more and more; brought whiskey among us, cheated
us out of our guns, our horses and our traps, and ploughed up our
grounds. They treated us cruelly; and, while they robbed us, said that
we robbed them. They made right look like wrong, and wrong like right.
I tried hard to get right, but could not. The white man wanted my
village, and back I must go. Sixteen thousand dollars every twelve
moons are to be given to the Pottawatomies for a little strip of land,
while one thousand dollars only was set down for our land signed away,
worth twenty times as much. White man is too great a cheat for red
man.
"A great chief, with many soldiers, came to drive us away. I went to
the prophet, who told me not to be afraid. They only wanted to
frighten us, and get our land without paying for it. I had a talk with
the great chief. He said if I would go, well. If I would not, he would
drive me. 'Who is Black Hawk?' said he. 'I am a Sac,' said I; 'my
forefather was a Sac; and all the nation call me a Sac.' But he said I
should go.
"I crossed the Mississippi with my people, during the night, and we
held a council. I touched the goose quill again, and they gave us some
corn, but it was soon gone. Then our women and children cried out for
the roasted ears, the beans, and squashes they had been used to, and
some of our braves went back in the night, to take some corn from our
own fields; the whites saw and fired upon them.
"I wished our great American father to do us justice. I wished to go
to him with others, but difficulties were thrown in the way. I
consulted the prophet, and recruited my bands to take my village
again; for I knew that it had been sold by a few, without the consent
of the many. It was a cheat. I said, 'I will not leave the place of my
fathers.'
"With my braves and warriors, on horseback, I moved up the river, and
took with us our women and children in canoes. Our prophet was among
us. The great war chief, White Beaver, sent twice to tell us to go
back; and that, if we did not, he would come and drive us. Black
Hawk's message was this: 'If you wish to fight us, come on.'
"We were soon at war; but I did not wish it: I tried to be at peace;
but when I sent parties with a white flag, some of my parties were
shot down. The whites behaved ill to me, they forced me into war, with
five hundred warriors, when they had against us three or four
thousand. I often beat them, driving back hundreds, with a few braves,
not half their number. We moved on to the Four Lakes.
"I made a dog feast before I left my camp. Before my braves feasted, I
took my great medicine bag, and made a speech to my people; this was
my speech:--
"'Braves and warriors! these are the medicine bags of our forefather,
Muk-a-ta-quet, who was the father of the Sac nation. They were handed
down to the great war chief of our nation, Na-na-ma-kee, who has been
at war with all the nations of the lakes, and all the nations of the
plains, and they have never yet been disgraced. I expect you all to
protect them.'
"We went to Mos-co-ho-co-y-nak, where the whites had built a fort. We
had several battles; but the whites so much outnumbered us, it was in
vain. We had not enough to eat. We dug roots, and pulled the bark from
trees, to keep us alive; some of our old people died of hunger. I
determined to remove our women across the Mississippi, that they might
return again to the Sac nation.
"We arrived at the Ouisconsin, and had begun crossing over, when the
enemy came in great force. We had either to fight, or to sacrifice our
women and children. I was mounted on a fine horse, and addressed my
warriors, encouraging them to be brave. With fifty of them I fought
long enough to let our women cross the river, losing only six men:
this was conduct worthy a brave.
"It was sad for us that a party of soldiers from Prairie du Chien were
stationed on the Ouisconsin, and these fired on our distressed women:
was this brave? No. Some were killed, some taken prisoners, and the
rest escaped into the woods. After many battles, I found the white men
too strong for us; and thinking there would be no peace while Black
Hawk was at the head of his braves, I gave myself up and my great
medicine bag. 'Take it,' said I. 'It is the soul of the Sac nation:
it has never been dishonoured in any battle. Take it; it is my life,
dearer than life; let it be given to the great American chief.'
"I understood afterwards, a large party of Sioux attacked our women,
children, and people, who had crossed the Mississippi, and killed
sixty of them: this was hard, and ought not to have been allowed by
the whites.
"I was sent to Jefferson Barracks, and afterwards to my great American
father at Washington. He wanted to know why I went to war with his
people. I said but little, for I thought he ought to have known why
before, and perhaps he did; perhaps he knew that I was deceived and
forced into war. His wigwam is built very strong. I think him to be a
good little man, and a great brave.
"I was treated well at all the places I passed through; Louisville,
Cincinnati, and Wheeling; and afterwards at Fortress Monroe,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the big village of New York; and I was
allowed to return home again to my people, of whom Kee-o-kuk, the
Running Fox, is now the chief. I sent for my great medicine bag, for I
wished to hand it down unsullied to my nation.
"It has been said that Black Hawk murdered women and children among
the whites; but it is not true. When the white man takes my hand, he
takes a hand that has only been raised against warriors and braves. It
has always been our custom to receive the stranger, and to use him
well. The white man shall ever be welcome among us as a brother. What
is done is past; we have buried the tomahawk, and the Sacs and Foxes
and Americans will now be friends.
"As I said, I am an old man, and younger men must take my place. A few
more snows, and I shall go where my fathers are. It is the wish of the
heart of Black Hawk, that the Great Spirit may keep the red men and
pale faces in peace, and that the tomahawk may be buried for ever."
_Austin._ Poor Black Hawk! He went through a great deal. And
Kee-o-kuk, the Running Fox, was made chief instead of him.
_Hunter._ Kee-o-kuk was a man more inclined to peace than war; for,
while Black Hawk was fighting, he kept two-thirds of the tribe in
peace. The time may come, when Indians may love peace as much as they
now love war; and when the "peace of God which passeth all
understanding" may "keep their hearts and minds in the knowledge and
love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."
_Austin._ Now, just before we go, will you please to tell us a little
about a buffalo hunt; just a little, and then we shall talk about it,
and about Black Hawk, all the way home.
_Hunter._ Well, it must be a short account now; perhaps I may describe
another hunt, more at length, another time. In hunting the buffalo,
the rifle, the lance, and the bow and arrow are used, as the case may
be. I have hunted with the Camanchees in the Mexican provinces, who
are famous horsemen; with the Sioux, on the Mississippi; the Crows,
on the Yellow-stone river; and the Pawnees, at the Rocky Mountains.
One morning, when among the Crows, a muster took place for a buffalo
hunt: you may be sure that I joined them, for at that time I was
almost an Indian myself.
_Austin._ How did you prepare for the hunt?
_Hunter._ As soon as we had notice, from the top of a bluff in the
distance, that a herd of buffaloes was on the prairie, we prepared our
horses; while some Indians were directed to follow our trail, with
one-horse carts, to bring home the meat.
_Brian._ You were sure, then, that you should kill some buffaloes.
_Hunter._ Yes; we had but little doubt on that head. I threw off my
cap; stripped off my coat; tying a handkerchief round my head, and
another round my waist; rolled up my sleeves; hastily put a few
bullets in my mouth, and mounted a fleet horse, armed with a rifle and
a thin, long spear: but most of the Crows had also bows and arrows.
_Basil._ Your thin spear would soon be broken.
_Hunter._ No; these thin, long spears are sometimes used, in buffalo
hunting, for years without breaking. When an Indian chases a buffalo,
if he does not use his rifle or bow and arrow, he rides on fast till
he comes up with his game, and makes his horse gallop just the same
pace as the buffalo. Every bound his horse gives, the Indian keeps
moving his spear backwards and forwards across the pommel of his
saddle, with the point sideways towards the buffalo. He gallops on in
this way, saying "Whish! whish!" every time he makes a feint, until he
finds himself in just the situation to inflict a deadly wound; then,
in a moment, with all his strength, he plunges in his lance, quick as
lightning, near the shoulders of the buffalo, and withdraws it at the
same instant: the lance, therefore, is not broken, though the buffalo
may be mortally wounded.
_Brian._ The poor buffalo has no chance at all.
_Austin._ Well! you mounted your horse, and rode off at full gallop--
_Hunter._ No; we walked our steeds all abreast, until we were seen by
the herd of buffaloes. On catching sight of us, in an instant they set
off, and we after them as hard as we could drive, a cloud of dust
rising from the prairie, occasioned by the trampling hoofs of the
buffaloes.
_Basil._ What a scamper there must be!
_Hunter._ Rifles were flashing, bowstrings were twanging, spears were
dashed into the fattest of the herd, and buffaloes were falling in all
directions. Here was seen an Indian rolling on the ground, and there a
horse gored to death by a buffalo bull. I brought down one of the
largest of the herd with my rifle, at the beginning of the hunt; and,
before it was ended, we had as many buffaloes as we knew what to do
with. Some of the party had loaded their rifles four or five times,
while at full gallop, bringing down a buffalo at every fire.
Very willingly would Austin have lingered long enough to hear of half
a dozen buffalo hunts; but, bearing in mind what had been said about
a longer account at another time, he cordially thanked the hunter for
all he had told them, and set off home, with a light heart, in earnest
conversation with his brothers.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Buffalo Hunt.]